Shake-up: McCain to “relaunch” campaign next week

posted at 7:23 pm on July 2, 2008 by Allahpundit

That’s the Times’s description for what’s going on, not McCain’s, but read their brutal piece on Steve Schmidt being bumped up today to take over day-to-day operations of the campaign in tandem with this prescient Politico story from this morning, before the change was announced, about GOP strategists wringing their hands over the incompetence of Team Maverick thus far and you’ll see why a relaunch doesn’t sound like a bad idea. There are too many awful, ominous quotes from both stories to excerpt, so this one from the NYT will have to suffice:

The shift was approved by Mr. McCain after several aides, including Mr. Schmidt, warned him about 10 days ago that he was in danger of losing the presidential election unless he revamped his campaign operation, according to two officials close to the campaign.

Okay, one more, by way of explaining McCain’s bizarre trip to Colombia:

On Wednesday, Mr. McCain visited Colombia, his second overseas trip in a month, and one that he took despite the urging of Republicans who said he needed to convey to voters his concerns about domestic problems and the economy.

“Somebody asked, ‘what’s the strategy behind this?’ ” Mr. Black said of the foreign travel. “It’s simple. McCain says he wants to go to these places, and we say of course.”

Still not worried? Here’s former McCain aide John Weaver’s take via TNR: “They couldn’t continue to go on without a field organization and without the basic architecture of a traditional campaign… There’s a requirement for basic competence, and that’s what this change says.” In other words, you need an actual organization to win a presidential campaign. Evidently it took the McCain camp four months to figure that out, pissing away the huge lead time his early primary win gave him over Obama in the process.

As the Times piece makes clear and ABC reiterates, the idea behind Schmidt’s promotion is to start bringing in veterans of the Bush/Cheney machine to try to set things right; Schmidt managed their war room in 2004 and Greg Jenkins, who’s coming aboard to limit the number of embarrassing green-screen speeches in the future, did advance work for Bush at the White House. The big operational shift, evidently, will be abandoning a plan to decentralize management of the campaign by outsourcing it to 10 regional managers. Did something happen recently to clue them in to the fact that that would be inefficient and chaotic? Nope. Per this Politico piece from April, Republican strategists have been warning them about it for months:

First, says one prominent GOP strategist, [national campaign manager Rick] Davis won’t be able to directly oversee regional aides with all the other responsibilities that come with running a campaign. And further, says this source, delegating so much decision-making authority to different individuals will lead to mixed results. “There are some things campaigns are going to do everywhere because they work and are fundamental to the campaign,” says the strategist.

“In every campaign, some people perform up to expectations, and some people don’t,” Black said by way of tamping down such criticism. “If some [regional campaign managers] don’t perform well, of course they’ll get more supervision.”…

“The Mehlman campaign style of ’04 would never work for him, and the beginning of the campaign proved that,” noted another GOP operative with ties to Bushworld. “But I just don’t know if this is realistic — why experiment in such a large-scale way?”

We’d better hope that the Mehlman style will work because it sounds like that’s what they’re going back to now. Exit question one: We should have known there was trouble when he started putting out those weird ads, shouldn’t we? Exit question two, from this morning’s Politico article: “What’s the political strategy when you allow your opponent, who has just had a grueling four months, time to catch their breath, regroup, fundraise and start to define himself?”

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The shift was approved by Mr. McCain after several aides, including Mr. Schmidt, warned him about 10 days ago that he was in danger of losing the presidential election unless he revamped his campaign operation.

I was a little worried last week when this ad came out. It offers no context or info, its just fluff.

Though I think the shake up is good, I don’t necessarily agree that McCain pissed away the last 4 months. He is still pretty competitive in most national polls. His fund raising has been ok, but I bet June will be a mega month for Obama.

Obama has had an awful 4 months. McCain should be more than competitive. McCain should be out there reminding people of Obama’s problems, but McCain stands there like a buffoon attacking his own supporters.

Well, when McCain listened to these bozos last spring, he ended up with an ineffective, inefficient campaign. He reworked it last fall, won the primaries, and is now polling something like 20 points ahead of a generic Republican. So now the fix is “generic Republicans to the rescue?” Forgive me if I remain skeptical of the wisdom of this “shakeup”.

LIARS!! YOU’RE ALL A BUNCH OF LYING LIARS WHO LIE!! STOP LYING ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN, YOU BUNCH OF LYING LIARS WHO LIE ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN! YOU WANT OBAMA TO GET ELECTED, YOU BUNCH OF LYING LIARS WHO LIE!! YOU’RE ALL SECRET AGENTS FROM THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN, YOU LYING LIARS WHO LIE A LOT!

John McCain is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

I have an idea. Get Obama to make any comment on his birth certificate.

The one on his website is a fake. His campaign will be over as soon as this finally hits the front pages.

Birth certificates require an embossed state seal. Embossing is the process of crimping BOTH sides of a piece of paper into a 3D-like surface. The seal is missing. Also, the certificate on the website is obviously not a scanned document.

I don’t know what the new brain trust will do that the old one didn’t, but a CHANGE is needed (where have we heard that before)?

McCain needs to get out in front of the energy issue, take a trip to ANWR, concentrate on campaigning in OH, PA, MI, VA, and CO, and also be ready to publicly jump on every one of the Obama campaign’s myriad flip-flops.

True, jumping on Obama’s flip-flops is a tall order due to their sheer numbers, but McCain needs to paint Obama as a man without a plan, full of self-contradictions, and that nobody really knows what he would do if elected President. Then contrast himself as someone who has been around, gotten things done, and knows what he stands for and what he wants to do.

Though I think the shake up is good, I don’t necessarily agree that McCain pissed away the last 4 months.

McCain has pretty much pissed away the last 8 years. Even I could have voted for him 8 years ago, if he had been the nominee. The last 8 years, with just a few good points to his credit, have primarily reinforced my old opinions of him.

The only shake-up that will do us any good is to relaunch the McCain campaign with someone else at the helm.

There’s a requirement for basic competence, and that’s what this change says.” In other words, you need an actual organization to win a presidential campaign. Evidently it took the McCain camp four months to figure that out, pissing away the huge lead time his early primary win gave him over Obama in the process.

For all you morons who have been whining that I’m supposed to shut up and blindly support McCain despite is lackluster campaigning- TOLD YA SO!

Maybe you’ll now start pushing cranky old bastard toward reconciling with the GOP base instead of gleefully pig piling on to his clear hatred of social conservatives and evangelicals.

Its all about the VP. Here in Mass-a-2-shitts there is a Romney bias amongst conservatives, McCain best think long and hard (5 years in the HH should qualify) and recognize that the only viable method to appeal to “us” is via his VP choice. I will afford him the move to the left as long as he makes the right choice for his 1st term successor. I will consider many options, but there are several fatal choices McCain must avoid.

Times should be banned on coverage of Republicans Politics
Let them savage the great Hope’er and Changer ,

“Second shake-up in a year”,news to me,and I think H/A
has been covering politics above and beyond the the call
of blogger duty!

This is appears to be a desperate cry for attention by the
Left,now they want to help McCain’s(actually hinder)campaign!

It must be a real problem for these Liberals,so I guess,
Obama is so boring,so empty,so(FULL OF IT!)that the Left
have to take some interest into McCain’s campaign,how about
someone kick these operatives out of McCains office,off
McCains street,and tell the Times to shut(The F-up) and
mind their own damn Liberal (BUSINESS)campaign!!!

The second time McCain’s had to change,re-organise,shake-up,
make another go,re-invent,a major make-over!!PA-LEASE!!!

Well, he was doing his best to p*ss on his own party. I would have thought he would get over that and try to appeal to the base; or at least wait to start giving them the finger when he was safely in office. Oh hell no. Backdoor John must have had a hell of a Cinco de Mayo hanging with the homies at La Raza; he’s been doing his best to alienate the pro border enforcement crowd, the evangelicals, the conservatives. I understand he hates us; right back at him here, but I would think he’d have wanted to pretend to like us long enough to fool a few more into voting for him. As I said yesterday, based on how lousy his campaign has been, I don’t think he really cares about winning.
I agree with the poster above we need to relaunch with a better candidate. Then again, I’ve been sayin that for months. Guess I’ll just enjoy the fact that i was right again. McCain sucks as a candidate, and now everybody knows it. Ah. And now, a cigarette.

LIARS!! YOU’RE ALL A BUNCH OF LYING LIARS WHO LIE!! STOP LYING ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN, YOU BUNCH OF LYING LIARS WHO LIE ABOUT JOHN MCCAIN! YOU WANT OBAMA TO GET ELECTED, YOU BUNCH OF LYING LIARS WHO LIE!! YOU’RE ALL SECRET AGENTS FROM THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN, YOU LYING LIARS WHO LIE A LOT!

John McCain is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.

/”wise”_man

misterpeasea on July 2, 2008 at 7:39 PM

Misterpeasea, you might have actually earned some McCain-points for that!

The only shake-up that will do us any good is to relaunch the McCain campaign with someone else at the helm.

LegendHasIt on July 2, 2008 at 8:22 PM

I agree. Without McCain, that is. He absolutely sucks.
He should stay in Colombia, possibly score some blow to calm himself down and let an actual Republican run for President up here. He is not the future of anything, as far as I can tell.

Obama is vulnerable as hell, and would lose handily if we had a decent candidate. We could bang his ugly head off day and night about oil, Bill Ayres, Rezko, his phoney new-found “patriotism” and a hundred other issues without having some McCainite idiocy derail our momentum.

If you can’t manage a damn slam-dunk campaign with minimal competence, how can you possibly manage a PresidencY?

Shaking up the campaign….I don’t know if it is smart or not seeing how it is a five-six point race already.

As for Columbia….pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Former hostage wants to be there when current hostages taste freedom. Said former hostage doesn’t use his inside knowledge to promote himself by grabbing up a photo op, just leaves quietly saying something about NAFTA to the reporters.

That is the McCain I see. Not this self centered cartoon many talk about.

McCain’s campaign telegraphed their pending change in strategy this week when they asked their supporters if McCain should start fighting back.

Answer:Looks like they decided fighting back could be accepted.

Nelsa on July 2, 2008 at 7:53 PM

They should have asked me – I just would have told them to swallow something to put quickly themselves out of their misery. I have tremendous empathy for these people – trying to sell John McCain is like that skit from the old Monty Python Show with the dead parrot, or the guy selling the “Bag o’ Broken Glass” as a fun-filled kid’s toy to parents. He’s bad news, all around. Idiot Obama should be flat on his back on the canvas by now, but look how pathetic McCain is these days. He’s already blown it, and it hasn’t even gotten started yet.
One idea – since those geniuses have to go out and ask people how to do their own jobs, why don’t they also ask Alaskans what they think of McCain’s idiot ANWR policy, while they’re at it?

This is where he could use Mitt’s expertise. Come on, Maverick. Swallow pride and ask.

I really don’t get what’s going on in the minds of any of McCain’s staff-campaign or otherwise. Perhaps McCain will use his trips to illustrate Obama’s lack of preparation for the job of President. When have you visited Columbia, Barack? Of what significance are the countries in Central and South America to us? Do you see regional trading blocs developing around the world? Have we been remiss in our relations with our southern neighbors?

This country needs a strategic plan, and it needs to begin implementing countermeasures to our overseas economic and military competition. And we need a strategy to neutralize Soros.

You know, it’s like both parties wanted to nominate the loser of this election. Who wants to lose the most is the question that remains undecided. It’s astounding at times to see either of these candiates try and talk to the people. They both do so much better when they shut their damn stupid mouths.

It’s astounding that McCain hasn’t bothered to actually put together a campaign plan. I guess he expected that the NY Times would run his campaign for him. After all, the Times tells him what to think about everything anyway, so why not have them run his campaign.

Tell me again why we’re lucky to have him as our nominee, and tell again why he’s such a great choice for President? Oh I remember now. He’s really really old.

Snake307: The age of McCain is becoming boring and tedious
from the Left,I think you mean Hopey and Changyes
to young(AS in Zero experience,ZERO Foreign
Policy experience)that yes we can Obama is too
inexperienced for the task!—————–:)

“It’s like the Super Bowl. If your team didn’t make it, you cheer for the team you hate less.”

Um, not necessarily, Rush. A football game doesn’t HAVE to be the center of ones life. One could , for instance, choose to not cheer for either team at all. One could choose to go on a road trip and get away from the idiotic hype. or maybe paint the house.

Last time I cared about who won the Presidency was when I saw one choice to be significantly better for the country overall, in the long run, than the other. This time it would be like cheering because I was given a choice of being blinded or of having my hands cut off.

Snake307: The age of McCain is becoming boring and tedious
from the Left,I think you mean Hopey and Changyes
to young(AS in Zero experience,ZERO Foreign
Policy experience)that yes we can Obama is too
inexperienced for the task!—————–:)

canopfor on July 2, 2008 at 9:12 PM

Interesting, when I put out there as my first statement

You know, it’s like both parties wanted to nominate the loser of this election. Who wants to lose the most is the question that remains undecided. It’s astounding at times to see either of these candidates try and talk to the people. They both do so much better when they shut their damn stupid mouths.

For some reason, probably a short attention span, you only noticed my last line. I have to wonder, what foreign policy experience has McCain got? What negotiations has he participated in? NONE. What treaties has he had a direct hand in crafting? None. What successful foreign policy has he had as his benchmark? Oh, the Surge. Yet, his experience of all those years, he finally got one right? That just proves that even a blind squirrel will find a nut now and then.

McCain on Bosnia was a real light at the end of the tunnel wasn’t it? How about McCain on Darfur? Sure he mentioned it a couple times, I guess that wins a big foreign policy experience.

Hey, his support of Ethanol just to get elected and the resulting starvation of how many millions must make you very proud of that piece of foreign policy wonder.

McCain isn’t the end result of the hopes and dreams of Conservatives, he’s the choice of moderates and the liberals. McCain is in fact, the bane of conservatives.

Now, how is it if I detest McCain, I must be from the left? Why am I not from the far right? Just because I’m opposed to the worst man for the job, McCain, doesn’t mean I’m a Leftist. I’m probably more right wing on most subjects than you are.

I’m in favor of a flat tax, how about you? I’ve written to congress about it, have you? I’m in favor of common sense immigration policy, which includes securing the boarder, and background as well as health checks on immigrants. How about you? I know McCain isn’t for any of that. He wants to punish successful people and individuals. He opposed the Bush tax cuts, because it was too generous to the rich. He leads lots of charges for pet projects, but never to get rid of the AMT, why is that?

Because your candidate is a punk. I say your candidate, because he was never my choice, and I won’t support him. Not because I’m a leftist, but because I’m a hard core conservative.

To quote Ann Coulter, how many drinks are Republicans going to have in order to touch the screen next to McCain’s name? Personally, I won’t drink to vote for him. Nothing could make me vote for him. There’s nothing there to vote for. He’s a punk who gets most of his information from the NY Times, and hasn’t had an original thought in his life.

Obama may suck, but at least it’s a true Democrat sucking, not a wannabe RINO.

I don’t think much has been squandered. This campaign just goes and on anyway and there are still months ahead. A lot of people are doing their best to not think about it right now.

And the MDS people are going to squak no matter what McCain does. And the Democrats are going to vote for Obama no matter what McCain does. So, for the undecideds there is still time.

And as for some of those people on the right who claim McCain has not done enough to reach out to them…why should he when we all know he would just draw back a nub? Really, you people just do not hear yourselves.

And you something people? Calling McCain names and treating him like crap will not get him to listen to you. Complaining that the man is not your friend and does not kiss your butt when all you do is talk about how much you hate him is stupid. If I was him, I would tune out a lot of this too. No one likes to be constantly insulted.

I second that. No candidate in this race has had better campaign organization and a controlled message than Mitt. He had the best website, the 76 page pamphlet of his agenda and was unflappable in the debates. He also raised more money than any other Republican (not counting his own donations).

If McCain wants to get some momentum and look like a leader – he will pick Mitt Romney as his VEEP and he will do it tomorrow. This will give McCain several advantages:

• A week or two of free press without having to compete with the Olympics

• Free publicity during the Olympics where Romney is sure to make a few appearances visiting with associates etc.

• A head start on fund raising, if McCain takes public financing Romney could help him raise 60 million additional dollars before he does so. It seems like he is raising a lot of money for the GOP right now, but he could do a lot more if he were on the ticket.

• Waiting till after Obama picks makes McCain look weak and indecisive. I mean seriously if Obama picks a woman, then McCain will pick a woman. How bad does that look? It will make McCain’s pick look like a purely political calculation. Besides, Obama is going to pick a white man. Odds of becoming the first black president are looking pretty good for him right now, but the odds of being the first black president and the first woman vice president on the same ticket? Odds are looking worse and worse, he’ll pick a white man as his VP I can practically guarantee it.

And as for some of those people on the right who claim McCain has not done enough to reach out to them…why should he when we all know he would just draw back a nub? Really, you people just do not hear yourselves.

Terrye on July 3, 2008 at 6:42 AM

Wrong. People like you are so invested in spewing the lies to prop up a substandard candidate that you can’t see the reality of the situation. Winning candidates do not have major shake-ups every two months. McCain has two choices, start listening to the base or continue listening to those of you in deep denial about what is going on.

P.S. I really don’t mind that you are completely blinded by cranky old bastard but stop insulting the intelligence of the rest of us by declaring that our viewpoint is not valid or our intentions are not honorable.

So…all you Republican Koolaid drinkers…how’s the McCain thing working out for you? I know…blah…blah…blah…he will apoint the right Supreme Court judges. Really? After the Supreme Court recently B-Slapped McCain Feingold, 5-4? I don’t think so! Oh…and McAmnesty is First, Last and Always about Immigration Reform! Good Luck!

Wrong. People like you are so invested in spewing the lies to prop up a substandard candidate that you can’t see the reality of the situation. Winning candidates do not have major shake-ups every two months. ***
highhopes on July 3, 2008 at 8:05 AM

Truer words were never spoken. The GOP’s implosion is sad. We have little effective party leadership. We’re looking at being down to as little as 41 seats in the Senate in 2009. We nominated McCain by default and have no enthusiasm in him whatsoever, in large part because he himself has no enthusiasm. And McCain is hoping to win the election by “default” if voters ultimately reject Obama. Dick Morris has said several times that this entire election is about Obama, and McCain is just “the other guy who’s running.” The whole thing really is depressing.

He can start by getting rid of the wannabe Obama campaign image on the web link to the “Decision Center”.

Hawkins1701 on July 3, 2008 at 2:14 AM

How about not kissing La Raza’s ass and pointing to Obama kissing it? Or about a million other things?
As MM said, it’s not the campaign, its the candidate.
I hope the Republicans turn on him at the convention.
He sucks like no other Republican that I can ever remember.

Calm down folks Jaun McCain is going easy on Obamessiah until after the Dumbs convention so that Hillary doesn’t steal the deal from a weakened saviour of all things living and a few million dead voters.

Thats what I keep telling myuself so I don’t have to face the fact that just possibly he is a cranky, arrogant old fool whos’ done everything he can to hogtie the conservatives and most of the Republican party.

But I must say the man is a war hero and if the dumbass Dems keep saying he’s not it will just make it easier for me to crawl across broken glass in a hazmat suit holding my nose with both hands to vote for the kreetin.

Ugh. I get more and more despondent about this election every day. My choice is between someone who is too old and full of himself and someone who is too young and doesn’t know shit. At this point even I am willing to take a second look at Hillary Clinton. At least she has some balls.

“It’s like the Super Bowl. If your team didn’t make it, you cheer for the team you hate less.”

(some gazillionaire radio host)

Marcus on July 2, 2008 at 9:13 PM

Yeah, but really you just watch the game and you turn it off if it isn’t close. You don’t have a Super Bowl party and you don’t buy the T-shirts and flags and banners. You don’t spend two weeks getting excited about the game and watching all the interviews and listening to the sports radio shows.

McCain needs more than just desultory hard-core Republicans showing up on Election Day and voting for him. He needs money, he needs crowds at his events, he needs enthusiastic supporters talking him up to their undecided co-workers and neighbors, he needs people walking around on the beach this summer wearing McCain hats and putting bumper stickers on their cars, he needs people calling the radio shows and talking him up. He’s not going to get any of those.

McCain needs more than just desultory hard-core Republicans showing up on Election Day and voting for him.

I honestly think that McCain thought he’d automatically gotten the GOP base by default (the where else are the bastards going to go mentality that runs rampant in his inner circle). So, McCain has piddled away the campaign thus far pandering to Democrats and liberals while his own flank remains unsecured. This is very similar to the way John Kerry ran his campaign.

This arrogance continues to bite him in the rear end because the GOP base may vote for him as the least evil candidate but that doesn’t mean they support McCain or feel good about themselves for electing him. The GOP base is not mobilized to make sure that McCain gets in the White House the way they did for GWB in 2004. They are not eagerly anticipating McCain rallies. They are not talking up the merits of McCain with friends and family. They are not putting McCain signs on their front lawns or stickers on their vehicles. Quite the opposite- the GOP base is demoralized that they have such a Quisling as their candidate and are, frankly, angry with the party that the primary system delivered such a lousy product.